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One of the advantages to being the boss—free mini-bar.
Normally she’d have clinked her glass to his bottle but keeping a distance between them seemed wise. Taking a sip, she leaned back against the bench, the fridge door cool on her calves.
‘So where do we go from here?’ she asked.
Luke shrugged. ‘A part of me wants to suggest that we accept it happened and move on. Never mention it again. Never...go there again.’
Claudia swallowed as his words cut her to the quick. His eagerness to move on hurt. Despite telling herself not to she had been spinning castles in the air. Fantasising about him saying, ‘I’m giving up London for you.’ But she knew it was the only thing that made sense for two people with very different life goals.
‘That’s probably the wisest thing,’ she said.
Luke nodded. ‘Wise, yes.’
But Claudia didn’t think his heart sounded in it and a tiny spark of hope flared to life. ‘What about the other part of you?’ she asked.
Luke took a swig of his beer. She so did not want to know about that part of him. ‘I tend not to listen to that side,’ he dismissed.
Which was a lie of course. That was his maverick side, his throw-caution-to-the-wind side. The creative part, the part that made him a gifted advertising executive, that formed new and innovative ideas that clients went nuts over.
He indulged that side all the time. Just not this time.
Claudia scrunched her nose. She wasn’t a fan of the first option so she was willing to take anything on board. ‘I still think it should get a vote.’
‘Oh, no.’ Luke shook his head. ‘It definitely should not get a vote.’
‘Oh, really? Why not?’
‘Because that part wants to rip that awful uniform off you and spend all night making you come.’
Claudia stilled. How could a statement so blatantly dirty sound so posh? ‘Oh.’
Luke took another swig of his beer. ‘Yes. Oh.’
Claudia’s hand trembled a little as her insides tied themselves into a massive knot. She placed her glass on the bench beside her, not trusting herself to keep hold of it as she slowly lost her grip on the real world.
‘I could be...’ she cleared her throat ‘...amenable...to that.’
Luke did not need another invitation. On a muffled expletive he closed the distance between them, sliding his beer onto the bench beside her wine before grabbing her around the waist, yanking her in close to him and slamming his mouth down onto hers.
And it didn’t disappoint. ‘God,’ he groaned as his mouth lifted to kiss her cheek, her eye, her ear. ‘I’ve been fantasising about this all day.’
Claudia went up on her tippy toes, clutching him around the shoulders, hanging on as his lips ravaged her neck, bending her back for better access as he swirled his tongue down into her cleavage. ‘Luke,’ she gasped as his hand yanked her blouse out of her skirt then glided up underneath, up, up, up to claim a breast, squeezing and kneading, rubbing across the aching tip with devastating effect.
‘We could keep doing this,’ Claudia said as Luke’s mouth trailed a wet trail along a collarbone.
‘Right,’ Luke panted as his mouth trekked back down her chest. He yanked her bra cup aside and her long low moan was like music to his ears. ‘We’re mature adults—we can handle a temporary...thing.’
Claudia nodded then gasped as Luke’s mouth found her nipple. ‘Oh, God.’
‘I don’t want to stop this,’ he murmured in between wet swirls around her nipples. ‘Do you want me to?’
Claudia shook her head. ‘No,’ she said, her denial husky but no less forceful. She really didn’t. Even if it was going to leave her crushed into the ground at the end, she’d take whatever he could give her here and now, because if she couldn’t have all of him then she’d have this time and tuck it inside her for ever knowing at least she had loved once upon a time.
Luke smiled and swirled his way back up to her neck, her mouth. ‘Good.’ He grinned, cupping her cheeks, his mouth on hers. ‘So good.’
And then he kissed her again, long and slow, savouring every delicious second, revelling in the knowledge that her kisses were going to be part of his life for the foreseeable future. Before coming back to Cairns the thought of giving one woman such power again would have scared the bejesus out of him but Claudia was right—all women weren’t the same and she was no Philippa.
He pulled back slightly, breathing hard. ‘Why aren’t we horizontal?’ he murmured.
She grinned. ‘I have no idea. We should do something about that.’ And she kissed him again, clinging to his neck as he slowly walked them backwards towards the bed.
